Monday, August 8, 2011

Ben Meyercord's Live Music Picks for Monday August 8th

Hello Dear Readers,

Last night I went a show! I went to Rontoms. It was the first show I had attended in quite some time. I sadly missed the first band, What Hearts. I did not know they were playing otherwise I would have made it out earlier to see the beautiful harmonies of those women. I did get there just in time to see YOURS. Those guys are great. Matthen has probably the best rock voice in town. And the band he has assembled is awesome. It has a nice blend of classic rock and more contemporary influences. Then Matt Sheehy's new band, Lost Lander, took the stage featuring Sarah Fennell, doing double duties last night as drummer of What Hearts and Keyboardist for Lostlander, and special guest Dana of Akron Family. It was a good time. Anyway, today I have the day off and decided to blog. I saw that there are some shows happening tonight. Check it out:

Al's Den is having a show with Eric Nordby and Evan Way. Eric Nordby is more commonly seen fronting the band Norman. Evan Way is more commonly seen fronting the band The Parson Red Heads. Both of their other bands touch on the the Americana genre. Some of you may not know this, but that genre is an outlet of choice for many closet singer-songwriters. I guess Evan Way is not so closeted seeing as to he has a myspace page in his name. Whatever. The important thing is that the two are both accomplished song writers and are good. Plus the show is FREE. Al's Den is the latest McMenamin's pub in Portland. So far they have had some good people play there. Hopefully they continue that trend. The show is FREE and starts at 7 PM.

The Someday Lounge is having a show with Mojave Bird, Forest Park, The Early, and Desert of Hiatus. The is a showcase of experimental music. I have written about Mojave Bird back in February when she first released something. In may she released another batch of reverb drenched tunes. It somewhat reminds me of Grouper but with some piano. Forest Park is a nice combination of post-rock touches applied to this female fronted rock band. As an added bonus they have they amazing drumming of Cyrus Lampton. Desert of Hiatus is near ambient and pretty music. Perfect for tuning out the rest of the world. The show is $5 and starts at 9 PM.

Valentine's is having a show with The Golden Hours, Filardo, and St. Ranger (AZ). The Golden Hours is a band that make kinda sloppy but very fun and infectious pop music. I have never seen them, but I have heard a lot of good things about them and have been impressed by the songs on their myspace. Sometimes there is a female lead vocal, sometimes a male vocal leads the song,but there are always strong pop sensibilities. Filardo is Tom Filardo's considerably less messy but just as poppy project. He has a tape out now called Enter The Edit Suite (check out the link I provided to download it). He has has been on tour with Arizona's St. Ranger. They have sweet harmonies which are often arranged cin choral parts.. They have sweet guitar parts. They have good songs. You should check them out. The show is FREE and starts at 9 PM.

If you see me at any of these shows please say, "hi". That would be very pleasant.